Quick thoughts on last night’s game: Charlie Morton looked good. His fastball was 92-93 most of the night and his breaking stuff was nasty. Three of his four walks came in the fifth and sixth innings in which he clearly looked tired. That’s more than understandable since he came back out after a 45 minute rain delay.

I also though Joel Hanrahan’s outing was interesting. He started off on the right foot by getting two quick outs, then allowed a succession of hits that brought in two Marlins runs. At that point, Joe Kerrigan came out with what seemed like rather pointed advice for a mound conference. Kerrigan looked right at Hanrahan, kept pointing at him, and Hanrahan kept nodding. Once Kerrigan walked off the mound, Hanrahan struck out Emilo Bonifacio to escape the jam and end the inning. I mention this because one of the things the Pirates said about Hanrahan when he was acquired was that they thought there was something he was doing that Kerrigan could help him fix. It should be interesting to monitor his progress in his first month or so here.

Finally, hope everyone has a safe and happy Fourth. Games at 6:10 again tonight, so look for the gamethread around 5.

About Pat Lackey

In 2005, I started a WHYGAVS instead of working on organic chemistry homework. Many years later, I've written about baseball and the Pirates for a number of sites all across the internet, but WHYGAVS is still my home. I still haven't finished that O-Chem homework, though.